Textured Bead Blog

Take your beading to the next level with bead artist Linda Landy posts regularly about the techniques you need to create bead-embroidered works that are sculptural, three-dimensional, and very textured. Keep up with trends and new products in bead embroidery and bead weaving.

The Bead&Button Show is a must for every serious beader. Always held in Milwaukee, it is the largest consumer jewelry and bead show in the world with a juried exhibit of amazing bead art and more than 500 classes -- bead embroidery, bead weaving, metal work, polymer clay, metal clay, lampwork, kumihimo, looming, and much much more. A huge (overwhelming) convention hall is full of hundreds of vendors sell precious gems, pearls, art beads, gold and silver, beading supplies and books. And everyone there speaks bead.

Here are the classes I will be teaching at the 2015 show. I hope to see you there.

Take a Spin

Wednesday, June 3, 2015 8:00am-3:00pm

The intense color and texture of fish leather (yes it is really made from fish skin) is the perfect backdrop for this intricately embellished spinner (yes, it really spins). A bezeled Swarovski rivoli is surrounded with Czech spikes and pearls, and the cuff is edged with tiny pearls. Students will learn how to engineer a working spinner, bezel a cabochon and set a grommet without breaking beads. They will also learn bead embroidery basics including backstitch, embellishing, finishing and edging. Kits will be available in a variety of colorways.

Tiny Dancer

Thursday, June 4, 2015 8:30am-3:30pm

A pie shaped cabochon bezeled and fringed with a lush cluster of marquise dangles in assorted color patinas invokes an image that comes right out of a painting from Renoir’s ballerina series. The shine of the polished cabochon works with the rough patinas to create a pendant rich in color and texture that can be suspended from the chain or rope of your choice. Kits will be available in a wide variety of natural stone cabochons.

The Right Spot

Friday, June 5, 2015 8:30am-4:00pm

Textured bead embroidery takes this whimsical animal print bracelet to the next dimension. Using pre-printed beading foundation as a guide, embroider Rizos vertically to give the illusion of fur. Students will learn how to read a graph, basic embroidery techniques, how to back and edge it, how to add a clasp. Kits will be available in Leopard, Tiger, Zebra and Snow Leopard.

The Other Side of the Moon

Saturday, June 6, 2015 9:00am-5:00pm

This stunning textured bead embroidered bracelet proves you don’t have to spend a fortune on cabochons. Surround a dollar’s worth of bezeled cabs with dense layers of Czech glass daggers, lentils, rondelles, drops, pearls, petals and more to create a bracelet that’s out of this world. Students will learn how to bezel a cabochon, backstitch, layer and combine many different types of beads to create a variety of effects, finish and edge bracelet. Kits will be available in four colorways.

Enter your email address to subscribe to the Extreme Bead Blog. Be sure to verify when you get the email.: